Land its live social networks are followed by thousands of people every week. Its community extends from Italy to the United States. Every book by him (he has written over twenty) becomes an occasion for new encounters. Selene Calloni Williams, the founder of shamanic yoga, out now in bookstores (from March 14) with Kintsugi – Heal the wounds of the soul and make every moment of your life precious (Piemme).
Kintsugi, as you know, is an ancient Japanese practice and technique which literally means “to repair with gold”. It consists of repairing ceramic objects, using gold to weld the fragments together. For the Orientals, every wound, even if painful, it is a source of beauty and every scar is transformed into a precious story.
Selene Calloni Williams: «I “repaired” myself too»
According to the technique of Kintsugi, from a wound it is possible to restore life to what has been damaged. Taking care of it is as good as psychotherapy, because it opens the heart, helps to forgive oneself, not to repeat the same mistakes.
How many times do we feel like victims of problems and of a destiny in the face of which we seem powerless. It is difficult to understand and accept pain when it knocks on our door. On the contrary, it is easy to anesthetize the symptoms of the disease with diversions and palliatives.
In a broad sense it is the ability to transform our physical and emotional wounds in an exceptional opportunity for growth and changeor. It is the awareness that one is only strong when one admits one’s weaknesses. Selene Calloni Williams has decided to tell about herself and tell about this particular healing journey that also concerned herself.
Selene Calloni Williams: «The gold of awareness»
Selene Calloni Williams has decided to tell herself in first person in this healing journey. Describing, in parallel, also the story of Tomoé, a great warrior nun, a samurai.
Thanks to the narration of her life and ancestral and symbolic legends, the author illustrates nine laws to repair the wounds of the soul, through daily meditative practices that will help to overcome anxieties, guilt, anger, dissatisfaction and to regain freedom, enthusiasm and joy of life.
The book it will also become a show at the Manzoni theater in Milan next 7 May at 8.30 pm. On stage the same author, Michelangelo Chini and Dasha Shumilova che will be accompanied by the powerful sound of the taiko – traditional Japanese drums – of the mystical Japanese shakuhachi flute and the hang.
“If you want to fix your life, you must first fix your dreams”
Selene why a book on kintsugi. What is different from those already on the market?
He was there, it’s part of a journey. It is a very important theme, Japanese philosophy is one with spirituality. I am a psychologist, but I have always found more affinity in shamanic techniques and Buddhist rituals. I speak of kintsugi as a practice of repairing wounds with the gold of awareness. Every time I’ve been shattered I’ve healed myself like this.
The book reveals nine spiritual laws.
It declines kintsugi in its spiritual and psychological aspect. I punctuated it by inserting an example taken from my life, from Tomoé’s and then two practices, a meditation and a healing ritual with mudras.
Talk about “form” meditation. What is it about?
It is part of esoteric Buddhism. The form is empty. Emptiness and form coincide. Emptiness is the very nature of all things. It cannot manifest itself and therefore it needs to interrupt itself and it interrupts itself with the form that is sacrifice, the giving of oneself that interrupts itself to manifest itself to us. If you replace emptiness with the divine you realize that form is the sacrifice of the divine which interrupts its invisibility to become manifest.
Selene Calloni Williams: «You have to be rebellious»
It starts from his first wound. His father’s death. A pain that brought her to Sri Lanka where her life changed forever.
My father died when I was nineteen. To deal with that immense pain I decided to get away from everyone. Two Italians had founded a company to build a resort in Sri Lanka and were looking for collaborators. The project was immediately suspended due to the violent social conflicts ravaging the island.
But I stayed because someone was needed to deliver the salaries to the security guys. In Colombo I met Michael Williams, the man who initiated me into shamanic yoga and whose name I bear today, for reasons of esoteric lineage.
Then she returned to Italy and met another master, the psychoanalyst James Hillman. At one point she recounts an episode: she was going to pick him up when she found herself in the middle of traffic. And she reacted in a particular way.
I had to go to Malpensa to pick him up to accompany him to Ascona, where he was to hold a conference. There was an endless queue. I slipped into the truck lane and got stuck there too. So I went to the agents who were fining everyone and I said: “I pay three, five, ten times the fine, but please let me pass”. They yelled at me to get back in the car, then came over and let me through. It was a moment of dissolution of the ego: I didn’t transgress for my personal gain, but because I felt that the event could not be jumped. Rules are made to be broken.
“Fix your dreams”
«If you want to repair your life, you must first repair your dreams» says Noburo Okuda Dō, yamabushi shaman.
Dreams can be used to repair our lives. When we fall asleep we can ask our spirit guide to take us to the underworld because falling asleep is a bit like dying. We can learn to heal life through dreams. If it’s a nightmare we can use awareness gold.
Why a show at the Manzoni?
Because it will be a formula that I intend to continue in the future as well. Acting out teachings is a practical way to reach out to anyone. The evening at Manzoni will be very suggestive with the ritual power of the taiko, the great Japanese drum.
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